The Paradox of Rural Women in Food Security in Latin America and the Caribbean

In 2026, designated by the United Nations as the International Year of the Woman Farmer, the region has a unique opportunity to draw attention to a persistent paradox in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC): the very women who sustain much of food production and access to food are also the most likely to experience food insecurity and poor-quality diets.

Women play an active role throughout the region's agri-food systems. They produce, process, prepare, and distribute food within their households and communities. Yet they continue to face disproportionately high levels of food insecurity. This reality highlights the structural inequalities that persist across the region. In response, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has been supporting initiatives that strengthen women's access to productive resources, services, and economic opportunities, helping reduce these gaps and improve their food security.
 

Agriculture is a strategic sector for Latin America's and the Caribbean's economic and environmental development. It accounts for approximately 6% of regional GDP, generates 15% of total employment, and contributes 13% of global agricultural production and 16% of world agricultural exports.

One of the sector's greatest challenges is ensuring a stable and sufficient supply of nutritious food for the entire population amid climate variability, increasing pressure on natural resources, and growing economic volatility.

Within this context, agri-food systems play a central role. They encompass the full range of activities and relationships involved in producing, processing, distributing, marketing, and consuming food. These systems determine not only how much food is produced, but also who produces it, who has access to it, under what conditions, and who ultimately benefits from agri-food systems. These dynamics are shaped by social norms that influence women's access to, use of, and control over productive resources, income, and services.

Agriculture and agri-food systems depend on well-functioning markets and their ability to manage risk. International conflicts, supply chain disruptions, climate shocks, and shifts in trade alliances affect energy, transportation, and access to critical inputs such as fertilizers. These factors increase production costs and contribute to greater food price volatility. In this context, public policies play a fundamental role in strengthening the resilience of agri-food systems and addressing market failures associated with these risks.

While these shocks affect the entire sector, they disproportionately impact those already facing structural barriers. For many rural women, evidence shows that limited access to land, water, credit, technology, extension services, and formal markets reduces their ability to cope with these risks, increasing both their economic vulnerability and their food insecurity.
 

Rural women are the backbone of food production and food supply in Latin America and the Caribbean. They manage family farms, diversify crops, sustain subsistence agriculture, and supply local markets while also organizing food consumption within their households and communities.

Across the region's agri-food systems, women account for approximately 36% of the workforce. Throughout the value chain—from on-farm production to food processing, transportation, marketing, and meal preparation—women participate as agricultural workers, often under highly informal working conditions.

Looking specifically at agricultural employment, women represented 24.4% of all people employed in agriculture in 2023, although the share varies considerably across countries. Women account for as much as 47.5% of agricultural employment in Bolivia and 43.9% in Barbados, compared with just 7.8% in the Dominican Republic and 9.4% in Honduras.
 

Beyond these figures, a significant share of women's work takes place in activities that are not fully captured by official statistics. These include unpaid labor on family farms, livestock care, food processing, home gardening, and support during harvests. Such activities are often regarded as extensions of domestic work or "family assistance" rather than formal agricultural employment, despite being essential to food production and supply.

In practice, rural women simultaneously shoulder responsibilities in agriculture, agri-food systems, and unpaid care work. Across the region, they devote between 20 and 42 hours per week to unpaid care activities, compared with 5 to 21 hours for men.

In other words, women are indispensable to the functioning of agri-food systems and to ensuring that food reaches people's tables. Yet this contribution does not translate into better living conditions or greater food security for themselves and their families.

Food security exists when all people have physical and economic access at all times to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to lead active and healthy lives. It depends not only on food availability but also on stable access to healthy diets. Food insecurity arises when people reduce either the quality or quantity of the food they consume, skip meals, or experience hunger.

Food insecurity remains a structural challenge across Latin America and the Caribbean. In recent years, indicators deteriorated because of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic slowdown, inflation, and climate-related shocks. Although the situation has improved—with moderate or severe food insecurity declining from 31.7% in 2019–2021 to 27.3% in 2022–2024—levels remain high and uneven across the region.

In the Caribbean, Haiti and Jamaica record the highest levels of food insecurity, where rural poverty, high climate vulnerability, and dependence on imports further increase risks.
Evidence shows that gender inequalities linked to poverty, limited access to and control over productive resources, low levels of political participation, discriminatory social norms, and different forms of violence create barriers that prevent many women from accessing healthy diets.

Across Latin America and the Caribbean, women experience a higher prevalence of food insecurity than men: 29.9% compared with 23.9%. The gender gap is even wider in Peru, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic, where differences reach 15.2, 13.8, and 9.2 percentage points, respectively.

Although the size of the gap varies by country, the pattern is observed across nearly the entire region—with Jamaica being the notable exception—and reveals a striking paradox: the women who sustain much of agricultural production, agri-food systems, and rural care work are also those most likely to experience food insecurity.

This pattern is neither universal nor inevitable. Evidence from several contexts shows that when women control the income generated by their agricultural activities, household food security tends to improve. Jamaica illustrates that this paradox is not inherent; it demonstrates that gender gaps in food security are not unavoidable across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Food insecurity is commonly measured through food access and consumption, but its consequences extend well beyond these dimensions. In many rural households, women reduce portion sizes, prioritize feeding children and other family members, and, when food is scarce, are often the first to cut back on their own consumption.

Over time, these coping strategies can undermine diet quality and increase the risk of malnutrition. Although anemia has multiple causes, its high prevalence among women ages 15 to 49 is another indicator of the nutritional disadvantages women face across the region.

The magnitude of the challenge is evident. In Haiti, nearly half of women ages 15 to 49 are affected by anemia, while in Guyana more than one-third experience this condition. Across Latin America and the Caribbean, approximately 20% of women in this age group are anemic, and this proportion increased between 2020 and 2023.